Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Be Counted in the Atheist Census

Atheist Alliance International has launched the atheist census to gather information about the world’s atheists. That information can be used to influence policymakers in the United States and around the world, so it’s worth doing. Here’s a video the group put out about the project. Click here to be counted.

I took it, its not bad. It uses the typical ‘Feel strongly positive about’ ‘feel somewhat positive about’ rating system in most questions. It also asks you to identify as weak strong or moderate atheist (don’t quote me, I’m wishing I could remember the exact wording). The latter half of the questionnaire seems to be geared mostly towards gathering information about the submitters opinions and experiences regarding local and national atheist organizations. Questions in the vein of ‘What would you like to see improve the visibility of local/national atheist organizations/groups’. Overall I’m happy to participate; while this won’t be the smoking gun that obliterates religious privilege, I believe that every little bit counts, and providing feedback is an opportunity I am not often privileged with. (Irony intended lol…)

The 2011 England and Wales census results for religion has just been released. Those selecting “no religion” have risen from 14.8% in 2001 to 25.1% in 2012. In my home city, those of “no religion” were 42.5% of the population last year.

Serena, you and I apparently took different censuses – I don’t recall being asked for opinions about anything; they just wanted some basic demographic information (country, age, gender, education, “what non-belief label do you call yourself”).

You’re an atheist, an agnostic (very different than an atheist) or a believer. I don’t think that there are any other categories for how people can be pigeonholed on the subject of religion.

Perhaps a better question might be, “Are you a laissez-faire or militant atheist?”. I don’t really give a rat’s ass what people believe as long as their beliefs don’t cause them or others any harm (in a pinch I’ll settle for them not harming others when they harm themselves). I will take umbrage and use short, highly charged words and phrases if someone inisists on GODbothering me.

RE: Gordon Kilngstoshit:

In a perfect world his legal team includes Staver, Klayman and Taitz of the KKKristianist law firm, Fucken, Dumb & Howe.